Specified minima for lateral and vertical separation of airborne aircraft are often referred to as loss of separation (LOS) rules. These LOS rules are usually published by regulating authorities such as the Federal Aviation Association (FAA), and they may vary in accordance with controlled airspaces, phase of flight, and other factors. A loss of separation (LOS) event occurs whenever a specified separation minimum between airborne aircraft in controlled airspace is breached. The loss of separation event may be due to a variety of reasons, and they may be ATC induced situations or pilot induced situations.
As may be appreciated, a LOS event is undesirable. Responding to a LOS event is a very cognitively demanding and time sensitive endeavor. One challenging aspect is that many traffic avoidance maneuvers are restricted to only the vertical plane. Another challenging aspect is that many traffic data systems work independently of the aircraft navigation or flight management systems. Therefore, LOS evaluation systems that monitor the traffic data systems may be unable to address proposed flight profile changes for the host aircraft.
Accordingly, improved LOS evaluation systems that process neighbor traffic data with CPDLC conditional clearances and CPDLC requests are desired. The following disclosure provides these technological enhancements, in addition to addressing related issues.